Thursday, November 17, 2011

The ski community suffered a great tragedy last week when Jamie Pierre lost his life in an avalanche at Snowbird. The resort was not yet open, and no avalanche control work had been performed. The area was considered back country, and the snowpack was extremely unstable.

Ever since high school, my friends and I considered Jamie to be one of the gnarliest skiers out there. He dropped the biggest cliffs anyone had ever seen and pioneered some of Utah's famous gap jumps like pyramid gap and the legendary 160-foot Leviathan Gap. He was one of the first Utah hucksters to push the boundaries of reason and constantly blow peoples' minds. In 2006, he broke the world record for biggest cliff jump on a 250 footer in Targhee, Wyoming. He pretty much set the standard for going big in everybody's book.

Last year I got the chance to go out with Jamie along with some other friends in Wolverine Cirque to film with Sweetgrass Productions. It was intimidating to pick out a line in the cirque after Jamie pointed out his aggressive run that culminated in an 80 foot drop at the bottom. Even though the snow in the landing was sluffed out, choppy, and generally non-ideal for such a huge cliff, he committed to his run and sent the massive drop at the end. It was truly amazing to see him work his magic in real life; I'll never forget it.

Here's a video of the above-mentioned run. January 2nd, 2011.

Here's a video of the last interview with Jamie. Although I hardly knew him, his skiing made a big impression on my life. He will go down as one of the most epic people of all time. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Monday, November 7, 2011

My friends up at Alta just dropped their new film Boot Deep. A beautiful film made in the heart of Little Cottonwood Canyon, this flick has some incredible powder footage, a sweet Wolverine Cirque segment, and a nice Pyramid gap session. What else could you ask for?